AL-03-05-ICT maps.
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CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS
21st
Century
Teaching
Mapping the connections between
ICT literacy skills, technology tools, and
the learning goals of core subject areas.
BY ED HAZELL
I
N MANY SCHOOLS, THERE’S A DISCONNECT
between the content taught, the technology tools
used, and the 21st century skills needed to apply
the content and tools effectively. “I met with a
group in Tucson that wants to create a 21st century high
school,” says Ken Kay, president of the Partnership for
21st Century Skills. “The administrators at this school
told me that the core curriculum people say to them, ‘I’m
not in the business to teach analytic thinking and problem-
solving. I went to school to teach a subject.’”
But these are exactly the skills that are nec- texture to 21st century learning,” Kay says.
essary for every student’s success in the 21st cen- “The difference between these skills and 20th
tury, according to the partnership, a nonprofit century learning is that in the 21st century,
alliance of education, business, and govern- you can’t separate your learning skills, your
ment leaders (of which Cable in the Classroom knowledge of the core content, and your tech-
is a member). Further, they believe that these nology skills. I think the maps have been very
skills can and should be integral to teaching core successful in helping people see how technol-
curriculum. To show these connections, the ogy, learning skills, and core content work to
partnership, in collaboration with major asso- reinforce each other when they intersect.”
ciations representing core subject areas, has
developed a series of ICT Literacy Maps that il- From Skills to Tools
lustrate the intersection between academic sub-
jects and information and communication to Outcomes
technology (ICT) literacy skills. Each ICT Literacy Map is a chart with three
The maps show “a real, three-dimensional columns that connects a 21st century skill to
8 Access Learning MARCH 2005 ILLUSTRATIONS BY IMAGEZOO
technology tools and student outcomes. Skills
include information and media literacy, commu-
nication, critical thinking and systems thinking,
and several others. These are matched with tech-
nology tools appropriate for applying the skill
within the subject area at various grade levels. For
instance, the English/Language Arts ICT Literacy
Map lists historical fiction, photos, Internet, and
TV as tools that fourth-graders can use to analyze,
access, manage, integrate, evaluate, and create in-
formation. The outcomes are things students will
be able to do using the tools in the process of at-
taining the skills. For example, one fourth-grade
student outcome for Communication Skills: Read-
ing suggests using pre-selected magazines, books,
and newspapers to gather information on local or
regional authors and then generate a list of key-
words for an online search about the author and
his or her works.
In addition to the English/Language Arts map,
the partnership has unveiled subject-specific ICT
Literacy Maps in math, geography, and science,
which they hope will help guide educators to-
ward meaningful integration
of technologies and 21st
century skills within
these subject areas.
“It will also be very
useful in bridging
the gap between
the core subject
folks and the
people having a
broader conversa-
tion about 21st cen-
tury skills,” says Kay.
“An administrator can pull
out a map and say, ‘Hey, teachers
in your discipline have looked at this. It shows what
it’s like when you include these learning skills and
these technologies in your subject area.’”
21st Century English/
Language Arts
“English teachers should be aware of the map as a
generative tool,” says Dale Allender, associate ex-
ecutive director of the National Council of Teach-
ers of English (NCTE), who collaborated with
NCTE members to develop the English ICT Liter-
acy Map. “Teachers sometimes need all this infor-
mation in one place to see how it fits into their
existing curriculum. They can see loosely, ‘this is
what I’m teaching, and I can locate the different skill
sets in the local, state, or national standards.’”
By looking at the 21st century learning skills and
the ways in which technology is used to both
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acquire the skills and learn content, teachers
can adapt the outcomes presented to fit state and
local learning-process and content standards, Al-
lender thinks. For instance, reading and writ-
ing skills are part of every
core English cur-
riculum. The ICT
Literacy Map
gives exam-
ples of how
fourth-
graders can
read both
traditional
print and on-
line informa-
tion sources, and
interpret non-text
sources like sound files
and images, to create a report. For a writing
project, seniors can write one book report in the
form of a brochure and another using multi-
media resources such as video and audio, then
compare media. In all these examples, core cur-
riculum is wedded to 21st century skills and
technology. According to Allender, the maps can
help teachers see “what they are already using,
but could be using differently, or get ideas for
using new technologies and techniques.”
21st Century Math
For math teachers, says Jim Ru-
billo, executive director of the
National Council of Teachers
of Mathematics (NCTM),
“the key is to use this map to
see how important the tech-
nology and the 21st century
learning skills are and how
they advance the learning of
Dale Allender
Associate executive director
National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE)
Director, NCTE West
Berkeley, CA
Ken Kay
President
Partnership for 21st Century Skills
Washington, DC
Jim Rubillo
Executive director
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics
Reston, VA
mathematics. We A New Definition of
must demon- Technology Literacy
strate this di-
rectly. The ICT “ICT literacy is such an important concept
map helps us and a departure from the way people have
see that the been thinking about technology,” says Kay.
technology of- “We shouldn’t be teaching technology for
fers us different it’s own sake, we should be teaching tech-
representations nology to accomplish critical learning skills.
or ways to look at So the definition of ICT literacy skills is not the
mathematical ideas. attainment of technology skills, it’s the attainment
We must help students mas- of learning skills through the use of technology.
ter the the basic skills and then learn the mean- That’s an important distinction. Under our cur-
ing of the calculations in a life-related context.” rent definition of technology competency, we
For example, Rubillo recently used a lesson ask people if they know how
plan from the Math Forum Web site and a to turn on a computer or
graphic calculator to simulate an epidemic with use PowerPoint. The
a class in Connecticut. The exercise accom- right questions are
plished several goals: using the technology, stu- more like, ‘Do you
dents not only applied basic math skills, but know how to be
also developed the sense of social responsibil- an effective com-
ity that is part of the 21st century learning skills. municator using
“They learned graphing, limits, and rates of technology? Do
change—that is, the increase or decrease of new you know how to
cases from one week to the next and their rela- be a problem-solver
tionship to graphical interpretation,” says Ru- using technology?’”
billo. “But what I really wanted to do was show “The technology it-
them how mathematics can inform public- self isn’t the center of at-
health policy decisions and why we take action tention,” agrees Rubillo. “The ultimate goal is
when an epidemic is coming along.” to make the tool so integral to learning that it
The ability to understand and analyze becomes just another resource to help students
data relating to a social issue (in this explore their ideas.” <
case, public health) and use that
mathematical data to help
guide responsible, ethical ac-
tions in a community con-
Related Resources
text (e.g., providing free flu ICT Literacy Maps
shots) is an important 21st www.21stcenturyskills.org/matrices
century skill. “They could Downloadable documents illustrating the
see why the Centers for Dis- connection between ICT literacy skills and
ease Control collects data, and geography, math, English, and science.
what they’re looking for in the Illuminations
numbers. The students could un- www.illuminations.nctm.org
derstand how the center knows when Interactive applets for math instruction from
the flu has peaked out, when it’s on the rise, NCTM and Marco Polo.
and the maximum number of people affected,” Math Forum @ Drexel
Rubillo says. Because the graphing calculator al- www.mathforum.org
lowed them to change variables and quickly see Lessons and interaction for math instruction.
results, students got a sense of the math behind
National Council of Teachers
an important public-health concern. of Mathematics
“Most importantly, they didn’t even notice www.nctm.org
that I was using the technology,” Rubillo says. Professional development, teaching ideas,
“It was just the natural thing. I was using it be- standards, and more for math teachers.
cause we were interested in what was going on. National Council of Teachers of English
I wasn’t standing there saying, ‘Hey look ev- www.ncte.org
erybody, I’m using technology.’ It’s just part of Site includes Teaching Resource Collections,
the tool set.” including Literacy in the Ways of the Web.

www.ciconline.org/accesslearning MARCH 2005 Access Learning 9